Tate Taylor, the writer and director of 2011′s Oscar-worthy The Help, is reportedly in negotiations to helm an untitled biopic of soul-singer, James Brown.  The picture is a long-awaited realization for producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind) who has always harbored a desire to adapt the late singer’s life into a feature film.  Joining Grazer as producer will be another musical icon, Mick Jagger.  The film will be a co-production of Imagine Entertainment and Jagger’s Jagged Films and will be based off of the screenplay by Fair Game writers, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth. Producers are now turning to avenues of distribution and for an actor to portray Brown.  Hit the jump for more.

Director Tate Taylor has been taking his sweet time in choosing a follow-up to last year’s Best Picture nominee The Help, but it sounds like he’s closing in on a new project.  Deadline reports that Taylor is in talks to write and direct an adaptation of the 2002 British miniseries The Jury.  The story “focuses on the inner workings of the trial of a young Sikh student charged with murdering a classmate tormenter.”  The original miniseries starred Gerard Butler and Mark Strong, and spent considerable time examining the lives of the jurors as they moved closer to a verdict.  The project was initially developed with Marc Forster directing and Beau Willimon (The Ides of March) writing the screenplay, but that version never came to fruition.  Hit the jump for more.

As I’ve been covering awards season pretty extensively here on the site over the past few months, I figured it would be appropriate to (foolishly) try to predict the upcoming Oscar nominations. It’s been a fairly tame year, as a few frontrunners were singled out early in the race and have held their ground throughout the grueling awards season. We haven’t been without a few surprises, as Steven Spielberg’s War Horse took a massive tumble following snubs from most of the major guilds, and David Fincher has surged back into the race bringing his adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with him.

Though there are plenty of safe bets when it comes to the 2012 Oscar nominations, there are still a few wildcards and tricky categories. I’ve put on my prognosticating cap (those interested can purchase one of these nifty hats at your local Target) and compiled a list of who and what I think will make the cut. Hit the jump to see how I think the nods will stack up when they’re announced on January 24th.

After breaking out in a big way following the success of last year’s Bridesmaids, star Melissa McCarthy understandably has quite a bit on her plate at the moment. One of her projects that’s pretty far along is a road trip comedy called Tammy. The film centers on a woman who takes a roadtrip with her diabetic/alcoholic/foul-mouthed grandmother after she’s laid off from a fast food restaurant and discovers that her husband’s having an affair. The Help director Tate Taylor was previously in talks to helm the project, but subsequently dropped out. Variety now reports that TV helmer Beth McCarthy (SNL, 30 Rock) has come onboard to direct.

Director McCarthy—who has no relation to actor McCarthy—served as director of Saturday Night Live from 1995-2006, and has also helmed episodes of 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, as well as two Super Bowl halftime shows. Actor McCarthy (who also wrote the script for Tammy) will next be seen in Judd Apatow’s This is Forty.

A couple months ago, we reported on the number of projects that Bridesmaids breakout star Melissa McCarthy had on her plate. Thanks to the female-driven comedy, McCarthy is now one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. Among the projects was a dark comedy that she was working on with The Help director Tate Taylor, and a road trip comedy called Tammy. Well, now Deadline reports that Taylor is in negotiations to helm the latter film. Whether the dark comedy Taylor and McCarthy were working on was Tammy or another project entirely is unclear, but Taylor seems to be in line to take the lead on the road trip pic. Hit the jump for more, including plot info on Tammy and what other projects are in development for McCarthy.

Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids was one of the biggest (and best) comedies of this year. If the film itself was a bit of surprise hit, the biggest surprise came from scene-stealer Melissa McCarthy. One of the highlights of the flick, she killed nearly every line she had and soon after the film’s success she found herself fielding a lot of phone calls. The Emmy-winner for Best Actress in a Comedy is currently working on a number of projects, and recently sat down to dole out some details.

In addition to the comedy that’s she’s scripting for Paramount with Bridesmaids co-writer Annie Mumolo (that film centers on a woman who hijacks the Stanley Cup to cheer up her sick husband), McCarthy is working on a dark comedy with The Help director Tate Taylor, a roadtrip comedy called Tammy, and Paul Feig’s new film Dumb Jock. Hit the jump for more details.

The Help is doing very well at the box office in its first week.  Writer/director Tate Taylor has perhaps the most to gain from the success, since this is just his second feature (and the first with any kind of profile).  The Help studio DreamWorks wants to keep him in house for a partnership with Warner Bros. and Plan B to adapt Leif Enger’s novel Peace Like a River.  THR reports Taylor is in early negotiations to direct, and I imagine his asking price is higher than the last time around.

Warner Bros. and Plan B have spent the last several years trying to adapt Peace Like a River.  Taylor’s involvement would advance the project, though as a hot director, he’s said to be considering several scripts for his follow-up.  The book is narrated by 11-year-old Reuben Land, who travels with his sister and father across the Midwest in 1962 to find his fugitive brother.  Read the full synopsis after the jump.

Movies that take place during the Civil Rights era have become their own genre and one that sometimes diminishes the characters and their stories by making everyone into a hero, a villain, or a martyr.  The Help tries to expand those roles by showing that not all southern white people in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi are vile racists, not all black people are born courageous activists, and that while the battle lines were clearly defined as right and wrong, some people had to do some soul-searching to find where they stood.  The movie stumbles when it forgets to shade its characters and by being too faithful to the book at the expense of effectively translating the story to the screen.  But despite these missteps, The Help manages to deliver some powerful emotional moments due in large part to yet another tremendous performance from Viola Davis.

Disney has sent over eight clips from writer/director Tate Taylor’s The Help, based on the bestselling book by Kathryn Stockett.  Set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement of the early 1960s, The Help is about “a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends’ lives—and a small Mississippi town—upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families.” The film stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Ocatvia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Lowell, Anna Camp, Ahna O Reilly, and Allison Janney.

I’ve spoken to a few people that have seen it and everyone has been raving.  Almost all say it’ll be a contender during Award season.  Hit the jump for the clips, and look for interviews with the cast week of release.

The international trailer for writer/director Tate Taylor’s The Help is now available online. While the first half of the cut is very similar to the trailer released back in April, the last minute devotes more time to highlighting the interview process that Emma Stone’s character takes on while writing about the lives of African-American maids in Jackson, Mississippi during the civil rights movement. While I consider Stone a great young talent, I’m mostly looking forward to checking out The Help because it looks to be genuinely interested in showcasing a segment of the African-American plight during a tumultuous time in American history as opposed to simply pointing out how helpful white people can be to those poor, helpless black folk (I’m looking at you, The Blind Side). Here’s to hoping that turns out to be the case.

In addition to Stone, The Help also stars Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek, and Octavia Spencer. The film hits theaters later this summer on August 12th. Hit the jump to check out both the trailer and a couple of new images from the pic .

Disney has released the first trailer for The Help, based on the bestselling book by Kathryn Stockett.  Set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement of the early 1960s, The Help tells the story of three women: recent college graduate Skeeter (Emma Stone), wise black maid Aibileen (Viola Davis), and Aibileen’s sassy best friend Minny (Ocatvia Spencer).  The threesome “come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk.”  Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Lowell, Anna Camp, Ahna O Reilly, and Allison Janney also star.  Tate Taylor wrote and directed the adaptation.

The Help opens August 12.  Watch the trailer after the jump.

DreamWorks has provided us with the first images along with the official synopsis for the upcoming 1960s drama The Help.  The film, which is based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett, was directed by Tate Taylor and stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney, Octavia Spencer, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Hit the jump to check out nine high-resolution images from the film plus the official synopsis.  The Help is set to open on August 12, 2011.

DreamWorks has firmed up its release date plans for the 2011.  The biggest (albeit unsurprising) change has Steven Spielberg’s War Horse moving from August 10th into the prime of awards season at December 28th.  However, this will also position Spielberg as his own competition since his The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is set to open on December 23rd (DreamWorks doesn’t have a stake in Tintin).  For those just tuning in, War Horse is based on a young adult novel about a horse trying to get back to his owner during World War I.

Also opening on the 23rd is Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo starring Matt Damon.  Two days earlier you have David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and on the 26th you have the untitled Muppets movie.   Hit the jump for release date news regarding DreamWorks’ upcoming films Fright Night, Real Steel, and The Help.

Three quick pieces of casting news for you tonight.  First up, Deadline reports that Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) has signed on to voice the character of “Jokey” Smurf in the upcoming CG-animated film The Smurfs.  Reubens joins Neil Patrick Harris, George Lopez, Quentin Tarantino, Katy Perry, Alan Cumming, Sofia Vergara, Hank Azaria, Jonathan Winters, and Jayma Mays.

Hit the jump for news on Ice Cube joining Oren Moverman’s (The Messenger) police corruption drama Rampart and Bryce Dallas Howard coming on board Tate Taylor’s The Help.

The last time Viola Davis starred as a working class black woman in a film set in the 1960s, she earned an Oscar nomination.  As her wonderful turn in Doubt upped her profile a couple dozen degrees, DreamWorks just signed Davis for the lead role in The Help, the high profile adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel of the same name.  According to Variety, Davis will play Aibileen, a maid who incites controversy throughout Jackson, Mississippi in the early sixties with a frank interview that details the realities of her employment.

Emma Stone (Zombieland) is circling the role of the aspiring writer who interviews Aibileen; Tate Taylor, who scripted the adaptation, is set to direct.  Details after the jump: